


Botfight

by kormanine



Category: Astro Boy (2009), Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Gen, Science Fiction, Slight Dystopian AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:13:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24758359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kormanine/pseuds/kormanine
Summary: Botfighting has been legalized and is now a televised sport. But when the introduction of red core energy threatens to corrupt the sport, Hiro finds himself caught in the crossfire. He also finds himself a robot named Astro who will end up changing the game forever.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Botfight

Hiro smiles as he sprints away from Yama and his gang.

He can't help it. There's something about the thrill of having successfully stolen from such a notorious man, who everyone scampers away from, that's satisfying. And maybe it's not just the stolen goods bouncing in his pockets—maybe it's the referee who's constantly holding up his wrist as the same man collapses from defeat as he loses the botfight to a child.

Of course, Yama doesn't know that the person he's constantly losing to is the one he's chasing now. But that only makes things much more fun for Hiro. He has the mask, the brain to beat these street titans, and now the potential for a monstrous bot being tossed around precariously in his pocket. Even with this ferocious endomorphic giant and his other minions stomping at his tail, shouting threats into the air, Hiro can't help but feel invincible.

Turning a sharp corner, Hiro disappears into the midday shadow of a dumpster. He watches as their heavy footsteps splash through the street puddles past him. He keeps a hand clamped over his mouth as they pause indecisively at the intersection down the alley, each of them shouting in frustration at one another, and it's not until Yama finally leads the crew down the path to the right and away from Hiro's sight that the boy releases his hand from his mouth, catching his breath, his heart pounding hard against his ribcage.

After a moment, he chuckles to himself, amused how easy it is to fool these people. They should know by now that he's a force to be reckoned with, mask or none.

Standing up, dusting off his cargo shorts, he observes his surroundings. None of it seems particularly familiar to him, from the yellow neon sign for some off-street bar to the one or two people loitering around, smoke in their eyes with the beginnings of cancer seeping into their lungs.

"Hey! Hiro!"

The sound of the sudden voice leads his head to look up. Sitting casually on the ledge of a building wall stairwell is one of his friends from the streets, Cora. She nods her head towards him. "I saw that, you lucky bastard!"

He grins. "Keep it down. They can't be that far away."

She pushes herself off the ledge, then skillfully lands on her own two feet. She gives him a face. "If they had that good of hearing, they would've heard your goddamn ego from ten blocks down."

Hiro scoffs. He's not  _ that _ cocky.

She strikes the back of her hand to his chest lightly to gain his attention. "Check this out." She reaches into her bag and fishes out a flat piece of plastic, and without another word, places it in Hiro's hand.

Narrowing his eyes, he flips it over in his hand, inspecting the object. "An outdated key card?"

"Look at who it belonged to."

The colour is faded, tearing down to the white base in some areas, the scratches revealing themselves in the sunlight. "Professor . . ." He can't really make out the name, so he looks at the picture. Familiarity strikes the back of his mind like a dull blow. "Tenma?"

"Mm-hmph." She's smiling with this smug knowing smile that rubs off on him like a bad joke.

He blinks in disbelief. "What could he have a key card for? Didn't he get kicked out of his own lab?"

"Because this isn't the card to that lab. It's to a different lab."

Hiro looks at her, suspicious and undeniably curious. A satisfied grin spreads across Cora's features as she glances the other way for a moment. "Remember that . . . 'myth' about the so-called rebellion? How a bunch of scientists joined together to fight against 'the end of the world'."

He nods. "Yeah, everybody does."

His only response is a taunting raise of her eyebrow.

He scoffs. "What, you think this is a key card to some secret, make-believe laboratory."

She plucks said key card from his hand. "I think I'm right about this one. Gut feeling. I'll hit you up if I find anything."

"Cora, that's a stretch."

"It's a starting point."

"To what?"

"To the next rebellion, dude. What else?"

Hiro would never guess that those kinds of thoughts even cross her mind—but it kind of makes sense. Cora is a street kid who's tired of being at the bottom of the system. Hiro doesn't know much about the Metro District, but she can't live a pretty life.

"Dude, you know you can always come live with me."

She nods. "I know. But I've got my own family, Hiro."

Hiro stuffs his hands in his pockets. "Okay—the lab? It's most likely not real. But I guess there's . . . some kind of possibility."

"If I find cool shit, I ain't sharing."

" _ What _ ?"

"Uh-huh!"

He desperately tries to backtrack. " _ Slim _ chance—but still a  _ chance _ !"

"Sure, dude."

"At least send pictures!"

She waves back at him mockingly. " _ Bye _ ~!"

He lets out a huff, feeling bitter. She just had to poke at his curiosity like that. Goddammit, Cora.

He makes his way casually out of the alley and onto an open street, glancing back over his shoulder a few times before mixing in with the crowd. The streets are always densely packed—and it makes sense with San Fransokyo being a dense city—so it caters well to help Hiro disappear. There's no denying they'll be on the lookout for his face, but he has a feeling Yama won't be able to connect him with his character Yokai anytime soon. He was caught stealing parts, but he wasn't caught with his mask.

He doesn't like to think about the possibility of his identity ever being revealed.

The bell chimes with his entrance into the cafe. Aunt Cass's pastries sweeten the air and melt away the dustiness of the city. However, Hiro's mind still lies away within the alleys, where the stench of gasoline, the taste of metal, and the subtle burning scent of sparks and cigarettes fill the air. Hiro still feels that taint in his lungs, feels the burn of it when he looks at the television and sees himself behind a Yokai mask, commanding a robot three times his size.

That's where he belongs: in the ring.

"Hiro!"

His aunt's cheerful tone wakes him from his daydream and he smiles. "Hey, Aunt Cass."

"There you are, ya little troublemaker," she teases, walking past him to serve a cup of coffee to a customer by the window.

He scoffs. "Trouble—what trouble?"

With Aunt Cass's back turned, he gets a wad of cash from his pocket and quickly slides it into the cash register. It's become easier to do these kinds of things, especially when he knows that an extra hundred dollars really does help Aunt Cass at the end of the day. She's been able to install a better AC, one that fights off the toxic fumes of the city.

"Ah-huh. You're always out doing who knows what—"

"What I was doing was buying you chocolate," Hiro suddenly says, holding out a chocolate bar.

She looks surprised for a moment, but then she takes the bar and sets her hand on her hip. "What do you want?"

"It's a gift! You can't assume I just want something."

"Cough it up, mister."

"Can you ask Honey Lemon to cover my shift this Thursday?" he asks quickly, sheepishly.

"Again?" Aunt Cass walks past him, going back to refill the coffee mug.

"I know she's been covering a lot of my shifts, but I really need Thursday cleared up. If it helps, I'll cover some extra shifts on Wednesday."

"Hanging out with your friends again?"

"Yeah, you know." He scratches the back of his head. "The usual," he ends vaguely.

Aunt Cass rolls her eyes playfully. "I'll ask her."

Hiro then proceeds to continuously say thank you in both English and Japanese whilst encasing his aunt in a hug. Aunt Cass sets down her tray to wrap both her arms around her nephew because Aunt Cass has always loved hugs for as long as she can remember, and she's just glad that Hiro is happy these days, especially in times like these, where the city is still struggling to rebuild itself and where the ghosts of those who left their family still tend to linger . . .

Hiro retreats to his room after this, determined to book his next fight and plan any other changes he could make with his current bot. He's been wanting to invest in some major upgrades just to keep things interesting, but the parts he'd gotten from Yama just might make up for that. It's small—he'd been able to hide it in his pocket. By itself, there isn't anything to it, but with a few modifications, he could make a wicked laser and upgrade Yama's idea entirely.

Maybe Cora might find something on her quest for that secret laboratory, something he can use for his bot upgrade. That would certainly be interesting . . .

He can see the lights of the arena from his window—beams of white light breaking through the clouds, shedding the night like a steel sun in a galaxy of sparks and violence.

There's really no denying it: Hiro's heart belongs in the ring.

  
  
  



End file.
